>> gretchen: tomorrow, arably tisdale, former victoria secret model. join us. >> brian: and you. martha: all right. everybody, yet another scandal is now emerging this morning from the obama administration. the associated press says that the justice department secretly seized their phone records from reporters and editors. the news organization, very unhappy about this to say the least. they're calling it a massive and unprecedented intrusion, raising a lot of questions about freedom of the press and the first amendment. good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. here in america's newsroom. >> i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer. top lawmakers want answers, they want them now, raising questions of abuses of power. speaker of the house, john boehner saying quote, they better have a damn good

explanation. martha: add to that, new reports this morning that the irs scandal may be first bigger than expected. president obama also increasingly defensive in the news conference over the growing benghazi firestorm. we may find out how many scandals the white house can juggle at one time. we have fox team coverage of this. catherine herridge is on the justice department's snooping on the ap. and doug mckelway on the expanding irs investigation. we'll start this morn with catherine. what are we learning on this, this morning? >> reporter: ap made public on letter from attorney general eric holder talking about the seizure of the justice department calling it unjustified and overly broad. they potentially reveal communications with confidential sources. we regard this action by the department of justice as serious interference with the ap's constitutional rights to gather and report the news. neither the ap nor the justice department is confirming why the records were taken, fox news was

told it is part of a justice department investigation into the alleged disclosure of classified information. associated press report last may on a thwarted plot by al qaeda in yemen to use an improvised explosive device similar to what the underwear bomber used to attack u.s. interests. late today a statement from the chairman of the senate judiciary committee that reads in part, quote, the burden is always on the government when they go after private information especially information regarding the press or confidential sources. i want to know more about this case but on the face of it i am concerned that the government may not have met that burden. i'm very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government's explanation. so it is clear from these statements that this is clearly a bipartisan issue, martha. martha: senator leahy is not alone. he makes a good point. we don't know yet, we know what ap is saying but we don't really know what the justice department's response to all of this is yet, do we? >> reporter: we had a statement from the u.s. attorney's office. it says advance notice to

the ap is not required in this case. quote, we must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation. because we value of the freedom of the press we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance and public interest in the free flow of information. during his confirmation hearings for cia director, white house terrorism advisor john brennan was pushed by lawmakers why he seemed to expand on the alleged leak of classified information by the associated press. >> did you tell me the media commentators that the united states had, inside control, or inside information on the aqap bomb plot in may of last year? >> when i had a teleconference with some individuals, former government officials from previous administration who is were going to be out on talk shows on the night that a , i.e. d was intercepted. so what i said at the, because i couldn't talk about any operational details, this was shortly after the anniversary of the

bin laden takedown, i said it was never a threat to the american public as we said so publicly because we had inside control of the plot. >> reporter: we have an event later today with attorney general eric holder where we expect he will take questions on this very issue, martha. martha: we all look forward to that. catherine, thank you very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. gregg another scandal seems to be widening. a new report that says irs officials in washington were also involved in the targeting of conservative groups. this showing the effort reached well beyond that one branch in cincinnati that was initially being blamed. doug mckelway, live in washington covering this. doug, members of the tea party have long suspected that this went much higher up the chain of command, didn't they? >> reporter: that's true, gregg. that fact portend that higher ups within the irs may be in for a lot of trouble. cofounder of the tea party patriot expresses what many members of congress believe.

listen up. >> i don't know whether it came from the top or not. what i know is that there is no way which a couple of low-level employees at a cincinnati, ohio, who had this much influence could affect so many groups across the country. literally it was coast to coast. >> reporter: it appears from a growing body of evidence that she is right. even members of congress who are now calling for investigations into the irs knew for years this was not a problem of low-level employees. in 2010 senator max baucus, chairman of the senate finance committee wrote the irs commissioner shulman, quoting now, i request that you and your agency survey major 501(c)(4), 5, and 6 organizations involved in political campaign activity to examine whether they are operated for the organizations intended tax-exempt purpose and to insure that political campaign activity is not the organization's primary activity. but the irs went about implementing that request in politically one-sided way.

listen to representative darrell issa. >> use constitution, bill of rights, patriot, tea party you are likely to have a very rough time. apparently if you use progressive or move on you are not. this kind of targeting what we knew before the election and now we have proof. >> reporter: baucus's office told fox news with his letter to the irs commissioner chairman baucus expected this oversight to be thorough and equitable and administered across the board. it appears it was not, gregg. bill: what is the latest on the congressional investigations? >> reporter: the senate finance committee and the house ways and means committee are both planning investigations as early as this week. in addition the irs inspector general is expected to release his full report on the issue at any time. meantime other members of congress are calling for swift action regardless of any investigations. senator marco rubio writing a letter to treasury secretary jack lew saying i strongly urge you and

president obama demand the irs commissioner's resignation effective immediately. in a "usa today" piece, acting commissioner, steven milter offered explanation for this. between 2010 and 2012 the number of applications for 50 1c 4 status doubled. while centralizing applications made sense the way we centralized them did not. bill: abuse of power and lying to congress are both federal crimes. this may in the end head to a special prosecutor. we'll have to wait and see. doug mckelway live in washington. we'll have much more on this and other controversies administration is now receiving. south carolina senator lindsey graham will join us live on what the ap, irs, benghazi scandals all three could mean for the rest of the obama term and whether new hearings are on the horizon. that is coming up in just a few minutes. martha: well, meanwhile, what may currently be the biggest problem for the white house, the allegations of a cover-up in the

benghazi terror attack. at a joint news conference with british prime minister david cameron a defiant president obama used some of his harshest words yet for his critics on gauze guz. calling the firestorm over his administration's response to the terror attack, a quote, political circus, and say that, quote, there there is no there there. watch. >> the whole issue of this of talking points frankly throughout this process has been a sideshow. what, we have been very clear about throughout was that immediately after this event happened we were not clear who exactly carried it out, how it had been, how it had occurred, what the motivations were. it happened at the same time as we had seen attacks on u.s. embassies in cairo as a consequence of this film. and nobody understood

exactly what was taking place during the course of those first few days. martha: we do know the cia called it a terrorist attack within 24 hours and in response to that statement yesterday, the chair of the house hearings into benghazi, republican congressman darrell issa, saying 2 was the president who sought to downplay the situation in miss opinion by describing killings of 4:00 americans as an act of terror, rather than a terrorist at act. a lot of semantics here and underlying meaning in how this was all interpreted. as we said lindsey graham will have more thoughts on that coming up gregg fiery reaction from kentucky senator rand paul. the republican saying that he considers former secretary of state hillary clinton being responsible for failing to stop the benghazi chaos. take a listen. >> the fact that hillary clinton was not engaged when they called for help, when they asked for more security for libya, it went to her underlings and she will let them take the fall?

absolutely that should have risen to the secretary and that is precisely her mistake and why she should be held accountable because it is her job to determine what information gets to her. bill: senator paul comments follow congressional hearings where other lawmakers cast blame squarely on mrs. clinton. here is her testimony, remember this in january that first sparked the huge backlash. >> the fact is, we had four dead americans. >> i understand. >> whether it was because after protest or because it was device out for a walk one night and decided they would go kill some americans, what difference at this point does it make? it is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again. bill: some republicans suggest that clinton's reaction to benghazi shows a total lack of leadership and that she should never hold office again. so what does the mother of one of the americans killed in benghazi think of president obama calling the congressional investigation

a political circus and quote, unquote, sideshow? patricia smith, mother of state department information officer sean smith will be joining us live later here on "america's newsroom.". martha: in the meantime, former vice president dick cheney on benghazi last night. watch. >> it was obvious as soon as we got the ambassador stevens on the phone that night and he said, quote, we are under attack. the cover-up included several officials up to and including president obama and the cover-up is still on going. martha: strong charges there. why the former vice president says he believes that the cover-up goes all the way to the oval office. we'll get reaction on that from ambassador john bolton. bill: plus the scandal over the irs targeting groups opposed to the president's agenda, a disturbing reminder of another fact. it will be the irs's jobs to enforce the president's new health care law. so will this evolving scandal change anything? we'll take a closer look.

>> first they throw the ball through your window. then they hide their hands and pretend they know nothing about it. of course the white house knows about it. these are the most ruthless politicians i have ever seen in america.

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gregg: president obama lashing out at accusations that his administrationdown played the role of terrorism in the u.s. consulate attack in benghazi that filled killed four americans including u.s. ambassador chris stevens. the president calling the revived controversy a partisan sideshow and dismissed claims that his administration tried to mislead the public by editing early talking points. well the former vice president dick cheney not buying it. take a listen. >> i think it's one of the worst incidents in frankly, that i can recall in my career. it put the whole capability claiming that terrorist problem was solved once we

got bin laden, that al qaeda was over with, if they told the truth about benghazi, that it was a terrorist attack by an al qaeda-affiliated group it would have destroyed the false image of competence that was the basis of his campaign for re-election. they lied. they claimed it was because of a demonstration video. so they wouldn't have to admit it was really all about their incompetence. that the state department and the white house ignored repeated warnings from the cia about the threat. they ignored messages from their own people on the ground that they needed more security. indeed they reduced what was already there. and the administration either had no forces ready to respond to an attack which should have been anticipated on the anniversary of 9/11, or they refused to deploy them when our people asked for help. gregg: john bolton is a former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and a fox news contributor. i want your reaction to the former vice president's remarks. >> i think there are only two possibilities here. either on beginning the september the 12th it was a

cover-up and the administration was lying to protect itself politically. or two, worse in my view is that the administration's ideology blinded them to the reality of what's on the ground. i would prefer it was a cover-up at least you can fix that. if the ideology is the problem, we have four more years of it, the president claims he called it an immediate yaled an act of terror in the rose garden. >> that is ridiculous. that is just ridiculous. the fact that he repeatedly responded to questions about the attack by saying, well we don't know yet if it is an act of terror. then extending out almost two weeks when he spoke to the united general assembly speech and the whole world watches and repeatedly talked about the mohammed video. he had plenty of chances to be explicit it was an act of terrorism. he never took it up. gregg: in fact i looked it up. he blamed it on an angry mob inspired by a video on youtube on september 12th, the 18th, the 20th, the 24th and the 25th. that is a full 14 days, two

weeks. so did his argument yesterday simply defy the record and common sense? >> well, this gets closer to me to an outright lie. look, a lie when you say something you know is not true. not when you just say something you're not aware of that turns not true. given all the statements in the weeks after the september 11th attack. if he wasn't briefed on what he and other administration officials said, he is surrounded by incompetence at the white house. if he was briefed it was a lie. gregg: he made another a astonishing claim, astonishing i say because it was so easily disapproved. he said, well, i sent matthew olson, director of national counterterrorism center up on capitol hill on september 19th to tell them this was an act of terror. this is not true, is it? >> this is the most flatly untrue statement he made yesterday. olson was called up for a previously scheduled hearing, and not in his prepared testimony but in response to a question, he said, yes, it was an act of terrorism. that caused a media sensation because he was the

first administration official, he is a career person but he was the first administration official to say, straight out, yes, it was terrorism. gregg: and then there's this. take a listen to president obama yesterday. >> suddenly three days ago this gets spun up as if there is something new to the story. there is no there there. gregg: he seems to be arguing that because of the documents were not leaked any sooner, then this is not a big deal. fallacious argument? >> it is and it is a signal to the white house press corp., it is him saying don't pay any attention to this. it is purely political that is his spin. from his point of view it is a good bet. this is a test of white house press corp.. are they going to show themselves adjournnalists or administration lap dogs. gregg: who executes he said some sort of a cover-up or effort to tamp things down for three days, forget the three days, because that is not the case.

but the answer to his rhetorical question may be, people who cover this up are the same people arguably retaliate against those who try to tell the truth? >> no, that is exactly right. i think these metastasizing scandals in the administration will severely test to have the press do what he wants. but the cover-up lasted well beyond three days. they counted in the campaign they could go past, get past the november election and people would forget about it as hillary clinton said at this point what difference does it makes? he ad the active assistance in candy crowley in the third debate verifying what he said. gregg: he denounced furor over the talking points as nothing more than a sideshow. is covering up or omitting the truth of what happened and pedaling some bogus claim of a videotape, is that a sideshow or arguably a shameful act of political and partisan manipulation? >> i think the president has a hard time being confronted with disagreement. i think his arrogance really

showed through in that press conference yesterday. the truth is out there. i think it is very plain. the question is whether the media will continue to avoid investigating what happened and whether congress can be stonewalled on what are obviously going to be continuing and very detailed investigations. gregg: ambassador john bolton, as always, good to see you. thank you. >> thank you. gregg: mart that? martha: coming up the motor city appears to be running out of gas. could an iconic city that stood for innovation an manufacturing in this country really be on the brink of collapse? gregg: plus angelina jolie, speaking out about her courageous decision to undergo dramatic surgery. this day calls you. to fight chronic osteoarthritis pain. to fight chronic low back pain. to take action. to take the next step. today, y will know you did something for your pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a pain reliever fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day,

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gregg: the astronaut spent 146 days on the international space station. martha: detroit, michigan, is one of america's great cities, right? not so much anymore. the motor city, home of moat town may be headed into bankruptcy court. detroit's emergency financial manager is a very busy man these days. he said his beloved city is nearing financial ruin at this point, that can be no paychecks for workers, and pension benefits and extreme cuts in services. >> on a cash flow basis, we don't have it. we're broke. >> what is clear from my report today is, we can't continue doing what we've been doing. >> all of us are going to have to continue to participate if we want our

city to come back and be healthy again. martha: well the city currently owes more than $14 billion. much of that is unfunded pension obligations. unemployment in detroit is at 17.5%, well above the national average. detroit's population has dwindled to 700,000 people. that is the lowest it has been since 1910. let's bring in fox business network's charles payne. what a sad story, charles and what are the less sons learned? >> detroit was called the paris of the west, peaked in 1950, really did, population and everything else. it was such a rich city, they started to embrace the idea everything should be lavish from pensions to city buildings, to things like that. it is one of the eppy centers of progressivism, which helped workers initially. but then again there is equalibrium to everything. feels like maybe the pendulum went too far. obviously from your introduction, pension

promises were way too lofty and way too lavish. some of the other things, taxes were too high. it made it an uncompetitive city. population went from 1.8 million in 1950 to where it is now. and, really deaf stating. martha: it is devastating. and it, you know, there is, they're at a tippingpoint. they're going to be able to tighten their belts and figure out a way to rebuild the city or it will be like one of those, once great cities that you visit in other parts of the world where it is sort of overgrown and it's gone. >> yeah. you're absolutely right. it could be a modern ruin if you will. martha: yeah. >> to american industrialism. you know, the thing is, it is already done. it's, believe it, there is no idea of saving the city per se. right now what they need to be working on is how to rebuild the city. how to bring it out of the rubble and that will be a tough call because it is going to need to sort of austerity kind of thing, that at least initially promoted in europe, the kind of stuff that sent youths in the streets to riots and

molotov cocktails. it is really is that same circumstance. they have to figure out a way, they will have to cut back on services even more than they have cut back already. probably in my mind lower taxes. you have to lure businesses in there. you've got to make it attractive to, it doesn't have the population base, the tax base to be one much these states, welfare state. they don't have the ability to print money. martha: you say that one in, there are at least 77 blocks in the city where only a single hem owner, think about that, a single person paid their taxes on the entire block. i do want to get your thoughts. that is a stunning fact in and of itself. >> yeah. martha: i want to get one other thing, where china has been investing heavily in detroit. is that potentially a good investment for them? what does that tell us about the big picture here in the u.s.? >> i got to tell you something i grew up in harlem in the '70s. there were blocks completely rubble, burnt outbuildings for years, for decades.

whoever owned the buildings, lots, paid the taxes on them, took them 20 and 30 years, but now all of those are multi, multimillion-dollar properties. dan gilbert, founder of quicken loans made huge investments. he probably will be the american savior if possible. that may only create an oasis. he bought nine buildings. three parking lots. old federal reserve building. what he is doing is magnificent. might create an oasis among the ruins. for the city to come back completely they have to lure in business. they have to lower taxes and be honest with people. they have to sell people who were born in the city and never enjoyed the beauty of it. never enjoyed the boom times. they have to be sold on the idea that, you know what? you will pay a heavy price if we're going to completely come back. martha: that is the big question mark. >> that is a big yes mark. martha: are people willing to do what it takes to bring the city back. we'll see. charles, thank you very much. >> thank you, martha. martha: okay. gregg: president obama's

second term agenda coming to a screeching halt as a third major scandal rocks the white house. coming up south carolina senator lindsey graham weighing in on the justice department's media snooping. the growing irs controversy and of course the benghazi terror attack

martha: the white house is now trying to defend itself from three potentially major scandals that could rock the obama administration in its second term. the white house press

secretary set to face reporters at 12:30. you can bet everybody will be watching that. what will this briefing entail? here with more on this morning, south carolina republican senator lindsey graham, a member of the senate armed services committee. senator, good to have you with us today. >> thank you. good morning. martha: we would like to work our way through these three issues and get your reaction and what congress might do with them. first one is potential constitutional freedom of the press. the ap is raving mad about this. they say their reporters and editors in their congressional posts spots basically had their phone records investigated by the justice department. the justice department said we take freedom of the press extremely seriously. we have not violated anything in this case. what you do think. >> i think this is something congress should look at. they're investigating who leaked classified information about a foiled plot in yemen.

that is an appropriate thing for the justice department to do but to subpoena documents, to go to court to get a subpoena for phone record of people who are supposed to report the news is the last resort. there are a lot of hurdles you have to overcome. there is no other way to get the information other than going after the reporters themselves. this sound very suspicious. i think it is designed to intimidate people who may come forward in the future to tell stories that the obama administration would not like to hear. we're going to follow you and if you talk to a reporter we'll going to know about it. probably an effort to intimidate people in the administration more than anything else. martha: yeah. what do you think would have been the right steps for them to take? certainly we've seen them reporters to turn over their sources before. would that have been the appropriate first step? >> there are guidelines in the department of justice how you do these things and from what i understand they went to the last option first. and again, this is a pretty obvious effort to me to intimidate people within the

administration that we're watching you. we're going to watch who you talk to. this is where congress has oversight function and i hope we'll perform it. >> let's talk about the sick issue, which really goes to the honesty and integrity of our taxation system in the united states of america. which is a pretty important sacrosanct thing. tough feel you're on a level playing field, when you pay your taxes and when you apply for tax-exempt status, which is what these organizations did. yesterday we talkis. it appeared it was based in the cincinnati office. today we're learning offices in washington and two offices in california also had wind of this situation. what about that? >> well, i think you're having power given to the obama administration by the american people being abused. this is not the first time that the irs has been used for political repriseal but clearly they're impeding the effort of conservative groups to form, unite and convey a message. they're using the power of the internal revenue service

with the benefit of the obama administration politically by trying to stonewall and silence critics. this is a very big deal. martha: you know, it just, my mind goes back to the issue when the president took office of, you know, this is going to be the most transparent administration we've ever seen and when you look at what is on their plate right now, and i'm sure they feel frustrated in the white house and oval office and they feel they are wronged and being misunderstood and there are a lot of serious issues congress wants to get the answer to. and i want to get your reaction what the president said yesterday and calling this investigation and the discussion about the talking points. he said it is a political circus and goes back to political motivations. he basically told the press that was out there, yesterday, get off of this topic because you're just falling into the hand of those who are politically motivated on it. >> well, i think he wants, he wants people, he would rather talk about the irs abuses then talk about

benghazi. the irs situation, the obama administration's not a victim of anything other than their excess abuse of power. but when it comes to benghazi you've got four dead americans. this is a story of manipulation by the government where the president being complicit, of trying to tell a story seven weeks before an election that was politically beneficial to the white house that did not represent the facts on the ground. manipulating the intelligence to get an outcome helpful to the election. and before the attack it was a system completely deaf and blind to the real threat that our people faced in benghazi and during the attack, it was a situation where president obama's administration allowed four people to be murdered, attacked by a radical islamist al qaeda-affiliated groups and nobody could help them. this to me is the story of the greatest importance of the three because four americans are dead and it is a story of failed foreign policy and the president is insulting my intelligence and the american people by

suggesting he called this a terrorist attack from the get-go. that is not true. martha: you know, we know the cia called it a terrorist attack been 24 hours. >> everybody did. martha: general petraeus said he thought the talking points were worthless. should the president be defending those talking points? that is exactly what he did. look we know that is what we knew at the time but we know that is not what they knew at the time. >> the president is insulting the american people. jay carney said the changes in the talking points from the original intelligence-generated version to the susan rice version were stylistic in nature that is arrogance beyond belief. the president ran out the clock and he won the collection. he was able to get the benghazi behind him in terms of electoral politics but it won't go away. mr. president, it will not go away. this is not a fox news story. this is an american story of four brave americans killed by radical islamist. the threat is growing. you've denied the threat.

you have political correctness running amok through your administration. this is an american story of abandoning people at their time of greatest need, allowing security to deteriorate on your watch and manipulating the american people about actually how they died. this is not going to stop. this is not about fox. it is not about lindsey graham. it is about the obama administration's foreign policy failings. martha: well, we'll talk to sean smith's mother. in her case it is american story. >> god bless her. martha: as you say and a very personal story. she will be with us in a little while. senator graham, always good to talk to you, sir, thank you very much. we'll see you soon. >> thank you. gregg: take a quick look at the markets right now, up about 30 points. the dow jones industrials still up above that magical 15,000 mark. not a lot of action so far in the markets. but, investors are reacting to the falling import prices. analysts suggest, to keep inflation in check. the dow is falling nearly 27

points on monday but today, on the plus side. martha: well the attorney general is back on the hot seat today. he survived fast and furious. as you may remember, but here's big question about eric holder when it comes to this ap story. will he be able to hold on through this latest situation? former attorney general michael mukasey joins us next. gregg: plus a hollywood star's courageous decision to undergo major surgery. what angelina jolie did that is getting a lot of reaction today and how it may save lives. miralax or metamucil may take days to work. or faster relief, try dulcolax laxative tablets. dulcolax provides gentle relief overnight unlike miralax and metamucil that can take up to 3 days. for predictable relief try dulcolax. withyou'll find reviewsve time, on home repair to healthcareon. written by people just like you. you want to be sure the money you're about to spend is money well spent.

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gregg: lawmakers now blasting the u.s. attorney general, eric holder, over the latest scandal at the department of justice. speaker john boehner now saying that the doj better have a damn good explanation for secretly obtaining months of news organizations phone records. former u.s. attorney general michael mukasey joins us here on the set in new york. you're also a federal judge. so you're certainly uniquely to talk about -- >> i was at one time. gregg: you were. what is your reaction? you think this is part of a larger narrative within the obama administration. what do you mean? >> well, talking to monica crowley about this just a moment ago. remember, this story concerns an al qaeda plot to blow up an airliner on the way into the united states. this conflicted with the administration's narrative during the campaign about al qaeda being on the run,

bin laden is dead. it's all over. and it is the same essentially as the issue underlying benghazi. which is that this is a narrative that is different from what we, we want to put out. gregg: the narrative is. gm is alive, bin laden is dead, and we defeated al qaeda. >> precisely, precisely. gregg: what do you think of that? reprehensible conduct? >> it's false. it is reprehensible conduct. the, the underlying facts with regard to the ap story suggest that there was a somewhat broader gathering of data than should ever have been authorized. the fact is what they were gathering is telephone records, not the content of conversations. we're not talking about bugging anybody or anything of that sort. gregg: but 20 separate lines over two months involving hundreds of journalists, doesn't that seem beyond the

normal narrow scope that these things are supposed to cover? >> it does. the justice department has a kind of kid gloves approach when it comes to conducting investigations that relate to the press. that's quite proper because you don't want to is did urge could the gathering of news and of information about the functioning of government. sometimes even stories that are embarrassing to the government. but when it comes to national security i think the government has every right to investigate. however, when they do, they have to do it with a very narrow focus. this starts to look like it was a lot broader than that. gregg: americans hold dear the first amendment including the freedom of the press. this arguably does great damage to the associated press and other news organizations because now sources, including confidential sources, are going to say, wait a minute, the doj may be secretly obtaining these phone records of not just the ap but others. >> they're not going to be obtaining the records, that is the content of telephone calls. gregg: right but they can identify the sources through

the phone records. >> they can. the fact is people do not have a right to leak confident alf government information. you work for the government you're supposed to keep that confidential. that said, classified information is of a yet higher level of confidentiality but if they were looking more broadly to discourage people from talking to reporters, that is worrisome. gregg: to sum up, if i understand your argument here, the narrative is being used here, what you're essentially saying is the arms of government are being used for political purposes by the obama white house and the department of justice? >> yes. gregg: is that an abuse of power? >> it's, yes, it is an abuse of power. the, when you have a situation where people's lives are at risk as they were in benghazi, and you make decisions whether to rescue them or not, or what story to put out or not,

based on the demands of a political campaign, that's way too far. gregg: since you have drawn the connection with benghazi, let me put a rather straightforward question to you. given all you have seen and heard, including what the president said yesterday, do you think this president and the white house and his administration at large deliberately misled or lied to the american people? >> oh, there is no question in my mind that they deliberately misled the american people with regard to benghazi. and for him to have dismissed that as a sideshow i suggest is whistling past the graveyard. that is not a sideshow. that is the main event. gregg: when he says there is no there there, there is plenty there? >> there is plenty there. >> former attorney general michael mukasey, former federal judge as well. thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. gregg: martha? martha: as you were just discussing, president obama has vehemently denied any

benghazi cover-up but at least one victim's family does not buy that argument. sean smith's mother joins us with her reaction to the president calling this investigation, a partisan sideshow. and the lack of justice for her son we'll discuss

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maybe you'll have some friends over for dinner. maybe you'll have a migraine. if you have migraines with 15 or more headache days a month, you're living a maybe life. and you may have chronic migraine. but knowing this thing you're going through has a name means knowing you can find treatments that are right for you. go to mychronicmigraine.com to find a headache specialist. and don't live a maybe life. martha: one much hollywood's biggest stars, angelina jolie, is now sharing with the world that she has undergone a preventative double mastectomy, after learning she had what is called a faulty gene that significantly raised her risk of brestd cancer. the 37-year-old actress said in an op-ed, quote. i wanted to write this to tell other women the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy but one i'm very happy that i made. my chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87% to under 5%.

i can tell my children that they don't need to fear that they will lose me to breast cancer. obviously that was a conversation she really wanted to be able to have with her children. i'm joined by doctor arlene susman director of women's imaging brookhaven memorial hospital. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you for having me. martha: really core rage just on her part. this is a famous hollywood actress, a sex symbol for her to come forward and talk about it, i think is really significant. do you? >> i think it is too. she is a really brave woman. martha: she is. talk to me a little about the decision she made and tell us what the genef all. >> a small percentage of women, only about 5% of women have at risk for what is called, heritable breast cancer, something that is genetically based. we know the women are at high-risk for developing breast cancer at some point in their life, a very high-risk.

in fact in angelina jolie's case, about 87% chance of developing breast cancer. martha: not only did she have the gene but she lost her mother at a young age, 37. >> that was a trigger for us, a clue, that she might have a gene, a faulty gene, if you will, that will, at some point in her life most likely she would develop breast cancer. so, to combat that, with that knowledge, at hand, you know, is a very difficult decision to make. what do you do to prevent it from coming on? martha: now i lost my mother a month ago to breast canser. >> i'm so sorry. martha: she did not have the gene. i want to make sure that everyone knows, with or without the gene you need to be really diligent in testing and taking care of yourself but explain to us who needs to have the blood test. it is very expensive and what the protocol should be for people who you don't think should have this test. >> as i said, heritabl.

e or genetic breast cancer accounts for only 5% of the breast cancers we see. that does not mean you should go ahead and get yearly mammograms and be vigilant and be sure you're doing the right thing after the age of 40. if we think you're at high-risk for developing breast cancer, say you have a first degree relative and in her case it was her mother. so a mother, a sister, a daughter, with early breast or ovarian cancer is a clue to us, a red flag, that you might be at risk. martha: all right. thank you. so do talk to your doctor. doctor, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you for having me. martha: we have to get out. we have a quick break coming up e we'll back with much more on "america's newsroom." nts. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless.

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to meeting patient needs... ♪ to wireless is mitless.s... martha: three big scandals rocking the white house this morning. the latest, accusation that is the justice department was secretly snooping around in the phone records of associated press reporters including their home phones. big issue on front burner this morning. welcome everybody, to a brand new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer. the secret subpoena of telephone records being called a massive and unprecedented intrusion, all of it coming on the heels of revelations that irs has been targeting a wide range of conservative groups. and as the obama administration faces increased pressure over benghazi. peter doocy begins our coverage this hour from the white house.

peter, did the department of justice give the associated pros any kinds of head's up they would be collecting so many phone records over two months? >> reporter: no, gregg. the ap says they had no idea that the justice department pulled these telephone toll records from more than 20 different lines until friday when they got a letter from the u.s. attorney's office that said two full months of 2012 records were secretly obtained for journalists home phones and cell phones as well as for lines at ap bureaus in d.c., new york, hartford, connecticut, and the house of representatives. now the u.s. attorney's office here in washington is saying when it comes to pulling phone records, quote, we must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation but the ap says they still haven't received a reason for sure why the doj needed so many records. >> this is not a very narrow

cast inquiry. it seems to be very broad and we don't really know what it's about. since they haven't told us. >> reporter: up the street on capitol hill a spokesman for speaker of the house john boehner says the first amendment is first for a reason. if the obama administration is going after reporters phone records they better have a damned good explanation. but, the white house press secretary jay carney says the first time anyone here learned about the d oft j speaking -- doj a, ap reporter phone records was on the news, gregg. gregg: it was quite a verbal mugging last friday when jay carney appeared in the press briefing room. it will be quite a briefing today? >> reporter: about two hours, 2 1/2 hours from right now, gregg. there is a 12:30 briefing schedule. this of course comes on the heels of jay carney's boss, president obama coming forward yesterday to talk about the other two major stories confronting the white house right now. president obama condemned

irs personnel for unfairly targeting conservative groups and he called the controversy over benghazi talking points, a sideshow. so we're going to hear more about those stories from jay carney about two hours. looking ahead to tomorrow, attorney general eric holder will actually appear on the hill before the house judiciary committee where the chairman, bob goodlatte, the republican from virginia, already said holder will face pointed questions about a possible abridgement of the first amendment. gregg? gregg: we'll wait and see what happens. peter doocy, live in front of the white house. peter, thank very much. martha? martha: if this does indeed turn out to constitute an abuse of power within the obama administration, some believe that it suggest a knicks sownian behavior on the part of the white house -- nixoniian. referring to president nixon's calls for the irs to audit his political enemies. steve hayes, writer for "weekly standard" and fox

news contributor. steve, what do you make of that comparison? >> well, good morning, martha. i think, look, one of the most important things of critics of the obama administration can do not let their conclusions race ahead of the evidence as we know it. so i would separate these three things. with respect to benghazi it is very clear that the obama administration has misled the american people. that this has happened at the highest levels. this happened both with respect to the talking points and in the discussion of what came after the talking points. we had this from jay carney last friday. we had it from the president the united states yesterday. i think there is no question, that has been taking place on benghazi. with the ap story and the irs story there is a lot we need to know before we can make any conclusions but i will say what we do know right now is deeply troubling. >> when you look at the ap story the suggestion is the justice department was after some information. they're claiming that the reason they didn't let ap know because it would hinder

their investigation. and that, as we heard the ap spokesperson speak to would sort of indicate you're going after something specific but she is saying, look, it was so broad across so many phone lines that that smacks of something that is questionable. then on top of that, the white house says, we first learned about this in the news. so on, is this specific investigation, a, and b, does it make any sense to you that the white house wouldn't be aware of it? >> remember the president said he first learned about it in the news. there was actually reporting that the white house counsel's office had known about it i believe on april 22nd. there is some discrepancy there. that is not necessarily anything nefarious but it certainly needs to be explored a little bit further. if you look at the broad nature of these requests, 20 phone numbers over the course of two months, that is very broad, almost in an unprecedented way and i think the justice department is going to be asked and should be asked to explain why exactly they had to take those rather dramatic

measures and also will have to explain why they have gone, i think so aggressively in search of these leakers but haven't gone as aggressively or at least not as as aggressively in public on other leaks, leaks that may have benefited the administration. you've had top administration officials talking about the presidential daily brief of president obama spinning it in a way that ben its if the president. where is the justice department vision of those leaks? martha: this larger issue, steve, of we didn't know, we didn't know what was going on. >> right. martha: it does become a narrative that i think deserves to be addressed and responded to by the white house. you look at benghazi. the president says, look, we were just telling what we knew. when we went over the talking points we wanted to limit them he is suggesting because we wanted to stick to what we knew because it was an ongoing investigation. then they were specific pinning it on the video. that raises a lot of questions. >> right. martha: the irs issue and ap

issue, part of the investigation is we didn't know. is that okay not to know? >> this is the one thing that these three different events and scandals or potential scandals have in common. the white house is disclaiming any knowledge or any real serious involvement. in the case of benghazi as you point out, they're now saying look, this was not done at the white house. this was the cia we worked from the cia's talking points. that is not true. the cia officials who were involved in this process understand that is not true and i suspect we'll be hearing a lot more from them in the coming days. it is also the white house's claim that they didn't know anything about these irs investigations and also that they didn't know anything about what the justice department was doing. maybe they're right about the latter two but we certainly need to explore this more. and i think there are real questions about how much the white house knew. martha: indeed. steve, thank you. as always. >> thanks, martha. martha: coming up at 10:30 this morning, bill o'reilly, the host of "the o'reilly factor" here on the fox news channel. he will join us to talk

through his take on these big controversies that are plaguing the obama white house now. that is coming up about 27 minutes from now. gregg: and some new reports this morning, that russia has detained an american cia operative accused of spying in moscow. amy kellogg joins us now from our london bureau with more on this amy, what is the latest from the russian capital that you're hearing? >> reporter: well, gregg, we're not getting a word from the u.s. embassy in moscow on this. not from the ambassador who is very media friendly in fact and just finished a live q&a session on twitter. not from his main spokesman. the only information we're getting now is coming from the fsb, which is the successor organization to the russian kgb, from the russian foreign ministry and russian media reports. and the russian story goes, someone named ryan fogle, who is the embassy's third secretary but whom the kgb call as cia operative was detained last night as he

was trying to allegedly recruit a member of the russian special services. they found apparently, according to the russians large sups of cash and envelopes on him. instructions on how to recruit a spy. some technical apparatus and some disguises in the form of wigs. now again, there has been no comment from the u.s. embassy on this. the russians have said that they have released ryan fogle back into the custody of the u.s. embassy but again, we are waiting for word, possibly now from washington on exactly what happened, gregg? gregg: what do you think this means for u.s.-russian relations, amy? >> reporter: well, gregg, it is no secret they have been very tense. in fact the fsb put out a statement saying there had been repeated attempts on the part of american diplomats in moscow to recruit other russian operatives. the secretary of state john kerry and the head of the fbi were in moscow last week and apparently took some

steps towards repairing relations but as we saw from the boston marathon bombings we need cooperation rather than espionage scandals at this point. so it is a work in progress. gregg. gregg: amy kellogg, live in london. amy, thanks very much. martha. martha: all this raises a big question. how long can the country's top cop hold his job? the president has stood by attorney general eric holder as you well know. you have this latest scandal that involves the justice department and it puts another mark on the record of this administration official. so could it be the final straw for eric holder? that is a big question out there right now. we will debate. gregg: sean smith was one of four people killed in benghazi. his mother will be joining us next to tell us how she feels about the president calling this investigation, a sideshow. >> how come somebody hasn't told me about it? how come somebody has not owned up to their decisions? and i'm so afraid, so very

afraid that other people that are serving our country are going to be treated the same way. my son can't be saved. he is already gone.

gregg: british prime minister david cameron visiting the boston marathon bombings memorial this morning. the massachusetts governor deval patrick by his side, speaking to reporters, the prime minister vowed to stand by america in the fight against terrorism. >> it's hard to believe that people can do these things to countries like ours when we are freedom-loving where we are democracies, where we value people's rights. but these do things happen and we have to fight them and challenge them and i know that's what you're going to do right here in boston. gregg: the makeshift emmoral in copley square includes t-shirts, running shoes and letters that have been steadily growing since the april 15th attacks. martha: well president obama now dismissing new criticisms about his

administration's response to the benghazi terror attack that killed four americans. watch this. >> we dishonor them when we, turn things like this into a political circus. what happened was tragic. it was carried out by extremists inside of libya. we are out there trying to hunt down the folks who carried this out and we're trying to make sure we fix the system so that it doesn't happen again. martha: there you have it from yesterday. and there ace a picture of sean smith. he was one of the four americans who was killed that night. he was a state department security information officer. his mother, patricia smith, who has joined us before, joins us once again this morning. mrs. smith, welcome, thank you very much for being with us today. >> hello, there. martha: talk to me about your reaction to what you heard the president just say. >> well, as far as i could tell he is the one politicizing everything. my son was, as he described

himself, as a flaming liberal and we chatted all the time about that and i'm an independent. where does it say anywhere that we're republican and we're doing this? the only one mentioning this is the president. martha: you know, what he is saying is politicized were these talking points that were put out by the cia which basically said that they were concerned that there could have been al qaeda involvement in this attack. that was removed from the talking points and then susan rice went on all the sunday shows to begin talking about this and basically said it was all about a video. what is your reaction to him saying that he thinks that all of this has been made into a political circus now? and does it distract from what is most important to you? >> well, i can't answer for him. i don't know why he thinks the way he did. i don't know why they made

the decisions that they made but nobody has ever, ever, gotten back to me to explain what happened. you know --. martha: you know what you look back at that, mrs. smith, i think of the president of the day after your son was killed and the three others were killed, coming out and saying that justice would be done and just a couple of, just a week or so ago i think it was they released three pictures, that is a picture are of your son there. we also have three pictures of men who were on the scene. how were you, i guess you have no idea how the investigation is going and most of us don't because you haven't been told anything either, right? >> the only thing that i've gotten is from the media itself and from various people calling me to tell me what they know. and there he is an awful lot that i know but i can't prove anything. and they don't want to know anything. they don't want, they want to cover their butts. that is what this government

has turned into. i don't like my government. i love my country desperately but i don't like my government. they don't tell the truth. >> you know, when you watch, i don't know, if you witnessed the testimony by greg hicks the other day who -- >> i was there. martha: you were there. and, loves his country and has served it ably as your son did, he also expressed that frustration and that sadness about why he believed the truth could not be told. what do you think is behind this? if you are hearing things and you believe that there is a truth to be told, what do you think's the motivation for why it isn't being told? >> politics. and my son didn't create those politics. he was very close-mouthed about anything. i barely knew anything from him. the only thing, the last words i heard from him, was him calling me, telling me, mom, there is somebody out there taking pictures. it is 9/11, i'm really worried. martha: yeah. >> and yet the government

that was told, if hillary was told, i don't know if she was or not. she said she wasn't told. why not? what was she doing? that was her department. is what she should do. the only reason she wasn't told she probably told her people, don't tell me anything so i don't have to admit to anything. i don't know. all i know is i don't know. martha: i know that you, i'm sure, that you desperately want the satisfaction of knowing the facts because as you say, you get phone calls, people tell you things. there are whistle-blowers out there and there may be more to come. we may learn more about this. do you think that, you know, would it satisfy if you saw more hearings, you know, people talking about bringing hillary clinton back and questioning her again. is that something you would like to see or do you think you won't get any satisfaction out of that either? >> i may not get satisfaction but i desperately want to be there at every hearing.

i want to look her in the eye and she looked me in the eye, she told me it was a video. and i'm sure that is what, she will still keep saying that unless somebody can prove different. she doesn't know. they didn't tell her. martha: so where does this go? i mean, we probably will have more hearings, and the politicallization of this, people believe stems from the fact that the administration wanted to present a picture that al qaeda was less and less active due to their actions but to argue that they were this on the scene that night and that they attack the embassy as chris stevens told greg hicks, we are under attack, you know, where, i'm sure as mom, all of that has probably very little meaning for you. does it? >> oh, it has a lot of meaning for me. i was there at the hearing and i saw greg hicks with tears in his eyes telling me,

or telling them at the hearing what really happened and the same way with the other two of them. they had, the only one that did not cry in front that i saw was the military man and i was just disgusted over the way things were happening. martha: well, mrs. smith, we thank you very much for being here and we commend you for having the courage to be at these hearings and to continue to speak out about something that i know is very difficult for you. so we do appreciate you spending time with us and we will stay on it as i know you will. thank you so much, ma'am. >> thank you. gregg: triple trouble now for the obama administration. in moments bill o'reilly will be here to give us his take on the three, count them three scandals now threatening the white house's credibility. martha: and o.j. simpson headed back to court for his fight for freedom. why the disis graed former football star believes he deserves a new trial in the robbery case that sent him back to prison or sent him

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martha: there is a famous ticking clock. you will start hearing it once again. a big announcement at fox's up front presentation for advertiser yesterday. jack is back, folks. the hit drama, "24" as a shorter event series. i look forward to that. kiefer sutherland signed on to play super agent jack bauer who saves the nation from terrorists. it went off the air in 2010 and there had long been talk of doing a movie version. this is what they settled on. are you a big "24" fan?

gregg: i do. make a couple franchise movies plus this. martha: nothing better sitting in living room on hot summer night watching six episodes of in a row, how i watched "24". we look forward to that. welcome back, jack bauer. gregg: very good. not so very good, o.j. simpson back in court. the former hall-of-famer is currently serving up to 33 years behind bars in nevada prison for armed robbery and kidnapping an assault. the list goes on and on. he is making his second appeal for freedom in nearly three years. william la jeunesse is live in las vegas. william, so does simpson actually have a chance of getting a new trial? >> reporter: well, gregg, you know experts said this was a longshot, a hail mary after hearing yesterday's testimony. it is not any longer. that especially after one of simpson's own lawyers yesterday said that he got a raw deal. that his personal attorney in the lead counsel yale galanter, sold him down the river, took his money and

did very little work. failed to hire a experienced competent appellate lawyer. most importantly that today lanter may have known and advised o.j., it was okay, legal to confront the two sports memorabilia dealers to get his personal items back. >> had i known that yale, for example, had told o.j., you have the right to go in there and, you know and as long as you don't force yourself in, break and enter or commit a burglary or something like that, you have the right to go in there and do this, i would have said look, i don't think you can be the lawyer on the case. >> reporter: galanter allegedly never disclosed that to the court, never brought it up at trial. would have shown that simpson was acting on his lawyer's advice and may have made a difference. gregg. gregg: i'm not sure in any lawyer in america would say, go in with a gun, pistol whip people, hold them against their will and steal this stuff. we'll let the judge decide.

is there, william, anything else, legally speaking that could meet the standard to get him a new trial? >> reporter: well, the claim of course is ineffective counsel, number one, that he failed to hire any experts or investigators. could have asked the state for money. didn't do it. but most importantly that he never advised o.j., the prosecutors had offer ad plea deal of two to five years and not the 9 to 33 that he is currently serving. >> if david rogers testifies today that in fact a deal was offered to o.j. simpson and the evidence shows that that was never offered to o.j., he will get a new trial. why? because of the fact, look how many years he is in jail. he has the right, he has the right to consider that. >> reporter: full disclosure, gabe grasso, the cocounsel, sponsored fee of $250,000. never paid a penny. he is suing yale galanter who countersued them for

slander. take it whether it is tainted testimony or truthful. we have five witnesses including the d.a. about the plea deal if it was offered or just talked about. back to you. gregg: william la jeunesse in las vegas. william, thanks. martha: a potential government scandal is rock washington. the justice department reportedly snooping on journalists at ap. what does bill o'reilly think about this? he will weigh in in a few moments. is it a scandal? you might be surprised. all business purchases. so you can capture your receipts, and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork. and more time doing paperwork.

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and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] e pill eachmorning. 24 hours. zero heartbur martha: the white house is expected to face tough questions we would expect at the daily briefing that happens today after a third scandal begins to rock the obama administration. a lot on their plate at the white house right now. the u.s. justice department is under fire after the "associated press" revealed that the justice department secretly obtained months of their phone records. bill o'reilly is the author of a new book called "keep it pithey" good to have you here, bill. good morning. martha: ho. let's start with the ap deal. you say you're not sure if it's such a big deal. >> miss laura on fox & friends called it a scandal. it's know the a scandal yes.

holder has a press conference coming up in a couple of hours. what usually happens in these kinds of things, is a via operation or covert operation, all right and they get wind of it. the justice department goes in and tries to find out who the leak is. and they've done this since george washington, it happens all the time. and congress and the supreme court have allowed them to do it, so let's just wait and see what this is. martha: clearly there is something that needs to be investigated, because there is other ways to go after a journalist and say we think there is a national security interest in understanding how you knew about this bomb attack that was thwarted, right. >> remember wikileaks, bradley manning the sergeant, they want to find out if there is a mole, they being the justice department inside the cia or the nsa or any of these intelligence outfits and that's the easiest way for them to do it. as a reporter i don't like it but the supreme court ruled they could do it. let's see where it goes. martha: let's see if the supreme court uphold the reason they did

it in that case, that's what we don't know yet >> holde yet. >> holder has to come out and say, we did x and that's why we did it. will he do that probably not. then you can start to hammer him. martha: there is a lot of discussion about a watergate comparison. i think everybody would agree and you imagine you would that we don't know if we can draw that kind of comparison yet. there are some similarities in terms of the elements that first started to bubble in those cas cases. >> i think you can make that conclusion, because you have to squeeze the obama administration for anything. it's so absurd, it's so ridiculous. you guys messed up, okay, number one, so the president should say, we didn't provide security for our people in libya the way we should have. everyone knows that, all right, except the people at msnbc, but everybody else in the world knows that. martha: who are starting to realize it now. >> they'll never realize it, it doesn't matter because no one

watches them. yes, you screwed it up, just say it, say it. number two, you sent out ambassador rice to mislead the world. who did that? who exactly, that's what i had to found george stephanopoulos on good morning mechani "good morning america" today, who did it? tell us. that's all, those are simple questions, as you know i'm a simple man. martha: one thing i don't understand, uri elected in your second term you're not going to run for officer again. you have every ability to take the higher ground and say, you know what. >> lead the nation, tamp it down and take the hit. martha: why not take the high road. >> the reason they did that in the first place is because of the election. they didn't want to admit they had poor security and admit that there was a full-blown terror attack because they thought it might hurt president obama's re-election chances. that's why they did it. martha: then you have to right the wrong afterwards. you have to accept that in order to do that. >> president obama doesn't want

to admit that and that is the crux of the story. martha: what about in terms to of the irs situation, concerned about that? >> am i concerned about it? of course. the irs takes an abuse of power to a level that is unacceptable. but, again, does president obama call them up and say, you give the tea party and other conservative groups a hard time? probably he doesn't do that because that is insane. maybe he did, and if he did he'll be impeached, all right. but you can't connect it right to him without gross speculation. that's what i'm trying to get across. conservative commentators provide cover for barack obama when they go further than the facts take them. when they speculate. because then the president can come back and say, see, it's just this right wing guys and republican, there is really nothing here. stay in the fact zone -- martha: absolutely. i think that's what we've been doing. when you look at fox' coverage of benghazi we've ever been

establishing the facts from the get go. martha: i'm sure we'll get a pulitzer prize, and you and i will go into oslow, norway, and we'll accept the pulitzer prize for reporting on benghazi, because we are the only ones who did it. martha: i think there might be some other people who want to be on the stage for that one. >> we'll see. we'll take applications. martha: when you build the story and look at the watergate investigation, the only reason i bring it up is because we've been accused of relentless reporting on this issue and not letting go of it. that's what happened in the watergate investigation. this were relentless reporters who would not let it go. >> until you get answers to your question. martha: that is what is going on. i know you'll be doing it tonight. a pithey question for you. tell us about the book. >> it's a book about -- it's not politics per se, it's about we are living in a changing world, dramatically changing world, how to handle it. you know, you've got to know what it is. for example, children they are being addicted these video

games and to these computer things, how do you handle it? because if you don't handle it -- >> how do you handle it? >> i basically put a timer on it. i put a timer on it. this is how much time you can spend there. and then you have to go outside, and i don't care if you sit in the front lawn you have to go outside. because if you don't it overcomes them, their whole persona becomes tweeting, texting, internet stuff, gaming, and if you allow that to happen your children simply won't develop as normal human beings. martha: and you have to be available to your kids as you say. >> the most important thing is that parents show their children that they are number one, and it's hard to do, but you've got -- you know that doesn't mean you don't discipline a kid, you discipline a kid but you show the kid that the kid is the top priority in your life as parent. all these little pearls of wisdom are in "deep it pithey" and we need it these days. martha: we sure do.

it's so important to be a voice for that. thank you for doing that, bill. thanks for being here. all right, coming up we'll go back to the big controversies we are talking about that are hitting the administration. what do you think about these and what bill and i just spoke about? send me a tweet and we'll take a look at that. gregg: be sure to make your tweet pithey, really important. new calls for attorney general eric holder to lose his job, this as the department of justice faces accusations of trashing the first amendment, spying on journalists. now should the attorney general go? martha: a bird's-eye view from the soon to be highest building in the hemisphere a dizzying view from the footprint of ground zero as one worl world trade center, we get a view of it, it's unlike anything you've ever seen. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] at jcpenney, we never stop being amazed by you.

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martha: we've got a setupping new time lapse video of the brand-new world trade center as the final big piece was put into place on friday. look at this. it's amazing watching this go up. the 758-ton spire was set atop the building amid cheers from the spectators and construction workers who have made this their life's work over the past several years. it brings the structure at its peak to a full height of 41,776 feet, symbolic of the

year when the united states declared its independence. it includes a broadcast antenna and light that will be visible for miles and miles to see. and it serves as a signal of the triumph over the terrorists who tried to break the united states on september 11th. boy we give all of the folks involved in that a lot of credit. it took a longtime but it is a beautiful sight and we are really proud to have it at the foot of new york. gregg: beautiful. we are awaitingth white house daily briefing amid calls for the attorney general eric holder to lose his job. makers to e are ripping his department of justice over reports it spied for the better part of two months on journalists. could the attorney general lose his job over this? bob beckel joins us former democratic campaign manager, cohost of the 5. mary catherine ham is with is,

from hot air.com. they say they are deeply troubled by what holder did here. should holder lose his job over this? >> let me say that going back to when i first got into politics during the watergate years the group i worked for was audited by the irs because the nixon white house ordered it. in this case it's much different. should holder lose his job? no. they were investigating a highly sensitive operation where they were trying to stop a u.s. plane being bombed, and so when that information was leaked under the patriot act and this is the law, everybody wanted that beautiful patriot act they had every right in the world to check on the ap numbers. gregg: this looks as though, and i read the manual on this thing that this was not followed, the guidelines were not followed at all. there was no advance notice here. it was very broad and sweeping. 20 phone lines, could be a hundred journal hr*eugs

journalists, that is not narrow and specific as the guidelines require. what do you think about holder's future here? >> that is the danger that they pointed out with the patriot act and other means of this kind is that government will always try to take a mile when you give them an inch, and in this case i think one of the problems for holder, a is that it had to go to him to be signed off on, that is part of the law. so if he didn't sign off on it personally he didn't follow the law. if he did he knew what was going down. there was a wide net cast on reporters which is not going to make them too likely to stand down when looking for answers to exactly what went down here. two months and many, many, many phone lines, including personal phone lines, that to me is not -- is not an attempt to keep it targeted in think weigh. gregg: it's not the only time it's happened. the inspector general came out with a report last year, i'll quote, the f.b.i. and of course the doj runs the f.b.i. violated its own policies in tens of thousands of cases by obtaining

phone records in terrorism investigation. i mean it's not just one time, bob. >> it's not just one time. also a lot of those happened during the bush administration i might add, because it's a misinterpretation of the patriotic act. it was a bad idea, it was passed in the heat of 9/11. we didn't look out for the civil liberties of people. you're saying it's a narrow definition of what holder did. it is the right of the justice department when you think you have a mole at the cia you, that seems to me to be a worthwhile use of what in my view is unconstitutional, the patriot act. gregg: eric holder held in contempt by congress in the fast and furious cases, there the voter discrimination, he backed off on that and got criticized. guantanamo bay he pulled the 9/11 contributors away and put them in hop normal court is this

such an albatross around the president's neck that holder really should go? >> the tk, oj has been home to any of the scandals that have happened during the presidency. of course not too many people seem to care about that gun scandal with fast and furious i guess it's only a problem when i have a gun not when we sell them to drug cartels. i think that he has held oainste he's he has a really close relationship with the president which is why people will follow this up and see whether the two of them were talking. >> the prosecutions are up against eric holder than any other attorney general in recent history. there have been people deported from the united states because of breaking immigration laws. and crime is down across the country. gregg: the 9/11 coconspirators have not been tried and he's been in the job for five years. i have to leave it there.

we are out of time. good to see you both, thanks. martha: let's go to jenna lee, find out what is coming up on "happening now" apartment the top of the hour. jenna: we are arwaiting a white house press briefing by jay carney and he'll no doubt be grilled on the three major big stories shadowing everything else on capitol hill. much on the growing irs storm rewe've been covering. the calls for new hearings on benghazi. fox news watch on the growing ap records scandal that you were just talking about there. judy miller who had her own fight when the government demanded information on her sources. we'll be here live on her take at the top of the hour. martha: thanks, jenna. all right. so it's a royal visit today to the garden state, and there is the motorcade, live shot in seaside heights. who would you thought you'd find prince harry in seaside heights. he's at the jersey shore. we are live from the boardwalk coming up after this. gregg: we like the jersey shore. goodnight.

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martha: here is something you don't see every day, folks. we've got video of britain's prince harry on the jersey shore with governor chris christie. he has been touring the devastation left behind by super storm sandy. he's on the jersey shore and julie banderas is reporting this for us live in seaside heights. what is going on there today, julie? >> well, martha it looks like a perfectly sunny summer day but in fact it's a bit of a cool day, and a bit of a difference of what summer vacationers often have experienced down here at the shore for many years on the summers. the boardwalk here being completely rebuilt, it's quite incredible, actually. prince harry bringing a lot of attention to this area. everybody excitinged for his visit. he is visiting two of the most devastated areas in the jersey

shore a little more than six months after super storm sandy devastated the jersey shore. the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating recovery after every one of the 521 homes were damaged or destroyed by sandy last october. many homes still remain in piles of rubble as we saw driving into the area this morning. christie estimates some 39,000 families still remain displaced in new jersey, that is down from 161,000 the day after the storm. but harry will be making his way into seaside heights here where we are in moments from now. earlier we got to aerials in a fact of him touring the area i was speaking of moments ago. as he enters the boardwalk here he plans on being joined by his guide, governor chris christie. they will be playing a couple of of boardwalk games here on the boardwalk. there are pictures, though, of this famous sigh site where we stand now, pictures at the boardwalk, the jet star amusement park here, the roller

coaster, before and after photos showing exactly how that actually plunged into the ocean shortly after prince harry leaves this location they will be beginning the process of digging it out of the ocean as the tide has now reached lower levels. martha: an iconic sight. and we thank prince harry for bringing attention to the shore. we december brat lee need it there. gregg: i betties a fan of jersey shore. martha: maybe. gregg: the tv series. we'll be right back, don't go away. ♪ [ femalannouncer ] from more efficient payments. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless.

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gregg: either certainly been a busy day. martha: it has been a very busy day, and prince harry in new jersey to top it all off. gregg, thank you. gregg: i hope he meets snookie while he's there. martha: i do to. "happening now" starts right now. jenna: a credibility crisis in our nation's capitol. the white house now dealing with its third scandal in less than a week as the bipartisan calls grow louder for some serious explanations to say the least, jon. jon: are those explanations coming? the latest controversy raising concerns about whether the feds violated the first amendment. the justice department under fire for secretly obtaining months' worth of phone records from the "associated press" and its employees. the search for the truth about what happened in the benghazi terror attack intensifies with calls for special prosecutors and more subpoenas. plus, the acting head of the irs speaking out on the tax man targeting con